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Weekend Crime Briefs

From Sunday's Metro section:

Baby's Body Found In Garbage Truck

A garbage truck driver discovered an infant's body in the back of his truck yesterday morning in the Great Falls area, and Fairfax County police yesterday were tracing the driver's route to try to determine the baby's identity and how he or she died.

The driver told police he began his route about 7 a.m. with an empty garbage compartment, Fairfax Officer Donald R. Gotthardt said. While making his rounds on Utterback Store Road, the driver pulled over about 9 a.m. to check the compartment, just south of Beach Mill Road, and found the baby. It was not clear whether the driver was working alone, Gotthardt said.

The infant's age, race and sex were not released yesterday, and police said an autopsy would be needed to determine the cause of death. Police declined to discuss the driver's route.

Fairfax police have been perplexed by the abandonment of two other babies in recent years, one on a Mount Vernon golf course in 2003 and one in Centreville last year. Neither case has been resolved.

-- Tom Jackman

Woman Assaulted In Her Fairfax Home

A man broke into a Fairfax County woman's home yesterday morning, sexually assaulted her and then forced her to drive to an automatic teller machine to withdraw cash, Fairfax police said.

The attack started about 5 a.m. at a townhouse in the 6000 block of Crooked Oak Lane in the Falls Church area near Seven Corners, Fairfax Lt. Daniel P. Courtney said. The 35-year-old resident told police that the man broke into her townhouse, assaulted her and took her money, then forced her at gunpoint to drive to a cash machine, Courtney said.

The woman tried unsuccessfully to withdraw cash. The suspect then drove her car a short distance and abandoned it on Peyton Randolph Drive. Courtney said there was no indication that the woman knew her attacker, and he declined to say how the man broke into the townhouse.